Nikia Chaney, poet, community organizer and graduate of Cal State San Bernardino, has been named the 2016-2018 Inlandia Literary Laureate.
Only the fourth laureate appointed to the prestigious post since the Inlandia Institute began such appointments in 2010, Chaney follows CSUSB English professor Juan Delgado.
Chaney earned her M.F.A. in creative writing from CSUSB in 2012. It was her second M.F.A., her first coming from Antioch University in Los Angeles.
The author of two chapbooks, “Sis Fuss” and “ladies, please,” Chaney’s manuscript, “bite down, hum,” won the Marsh Hawk Robert Creeley Award in 2015. Her poetry was chosen by Nikki Giovanni as the winner of the 2012 OSA Enizagam Poetry Award.
After graduating from CSUSB, she founded Jamii Publishing, a poetry press, and shufPoetry, an online journal for experimental work.
Chaney also has won grants from the Barbara Demings Fund for Women, Poets & Writers, and Cave Canem. She teaches at San Bernardino Valley College.
The author already has a clear vision for what she hopes to accomplish while literary laureate.
With an office at the Ernie Garcia Center on E Street in San Bernardino, she sees creating an anthology that centers on “this city that sits below mountains and deserts,” its history, the people, the community and what people really know of it.
She also wants to hold consecutive workshops to address and heal violence.
“I want this to change,” says Chaney. “And to begin we should do as we writers have always done. Listen. It's time for us as artists to listen to the voices of our community.”
Finally, Chaney hopes to establish Inlandia's Homespun Co-op Chapbook Series. It’s an idea, she says, that captures the “heart and soul of this region by seeking to create a publishing model that is more inclusive than contests alone.”
Visit Nikia Chaney’s website for more information about her work.
Also visit the Inlandia Institute website for more about its programs.
For more information, call the CSUSB Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.